Question

I asked this question in the "Netwworking, Mail..." Forum and it was suggested that I post here.

I think this is a somewhat frequent problem but I can't determine the best course of action.

After running for some time in a very stable state with XP sp2 I purchased Office 2010 which apparently will only install with sp3.

I installed sp3 and immediately had problems. I could not get online and when I attempted to turn on Windows firewall I got the message "windows cannot start the windows firewall/internet connection sharing (ICS) service"

It was suggested to me in the other forum that my security software was a potential source of the problem. I used system restore to go back to the pre-sp3 configuration and uninstalled my security software. I checked - Windows firewall turned on, online
access was available.

I then downloaded the sp3 install .exe and installed. I have the same problem as before. I tried other approaches to turning on Windows Firewall. The various error messages were essentially the same, although one included "Error 1068: The dependency service
or group failed to start." Don't know if that provides any additional information or not.

I'm dead in the water. I just spent $400 on Office 2010 - which I need - but I can't get from sp2 to a clean sp3 install.

Even though you had security software, it is still possible you had/have malware. SP2 has so many security holes, and there is a lot of malware out there that is capable of circumventing security software.

If you're lucky and don't have any malware, all that might be necessary is to run a special removal tool provided by the security software company (that is why we need to know which software you had been running!).

The removal tool is necessary because Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs usually does not completely remove many security programs. And as long as there are traces left, major upgrades (for instance, a Service pack upgrade) often cannot occur.

I'm sorry but I don't know exactly what you are referring to re: removal tool. Do you mean did I run the add/remove on the security software after I did the uninstall? I did not. I simply uninstalled the security software and then began the sp3 install.

I ran services.msc. RPC was started, event log was started. I did not check network connections or windows management instrumentation. The error message when I tried to start Windows Firewall was "Could not start the windows firewall/internet connection
sharing (ICS) service on Local Computer Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start."

I don't know if that helps.

I have just started the sp3 removal so I cannot check again for the other services.

I'm using Norton Internet Security 2009. I stopped using Norton a number of years ago due to performance problems but gave IS2009 a try and have been mostly satisfied with it. Because my system was stable for so long I refused to upgrade to the 2010 or
2011 versions, choosing rather to keep the virus definitions, etc, current but not upgrading the entire package.

I just started the sp3 removal and will try to run a system restore again to get back to my pre sp3 state...

I did all of the steps but when I went to Start the Windows Firewall / Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service I got the following error message:

Could not start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service on Local Computer.

Error 5: Access is denied.

I have XP with SP3. I know support has ended and I need a new computer and Operating system but I am, to be honest, lazy about picking out a new computer. I have also been having a sporadic problem with
a svchost.exe loading and taking up virtually 100% of my CPU time on startup. Once I stop this instance of the process through Task Manager the computer works fine except for my display settings have to be reset. And my security system, Webroot Secure Anywhere,
keep notifying me that the Windows firewall is not enabled. I think the no ICS and the hanging svchost.exe process are related? Yes? No?

I am experiencing the same problems as BKuss. svchost runs my computer at 100% CPU. I have to manually terminate it. ICS will not start and displays error 5 : Access Denied

RPC and WMI start OK on the same account (NETWORK SERVICES) and they work fine.

I have been running XP SP3 for years without any issues. My Norton Symantec antivirus is out of date and I don't think it does much these days, since XP support ended in 2015 I have not been receiving any definition updates.

Internet connection works for a few minutes after a reboot and then it stops.

This problem seems to have started since I installed the wannacry patch issued by Microsoft for windows XP SP3 approximately one month ago.